ESLs provide a convenient way to display prices and other relevant information about goods. A retail location may have hundreds or thousands of ESLs that receive pricing and other information transmitted by a communication base station. The communication base station provides an interface between a central server and the ESLs.
In order to for ESLs in a system to display correct and current information, proper records of which ESLs are in the system must be kept and updated as ELSs are added to or removed from the system. An ESL system typically includes an ESL database storing identification information for each ESL operating in the system. For each ESL, an association is maintained between the ESL and the product for which the ESL is displaying information. The database also maintains information to be displayed by the ESL. As product information changes, updated information is transmitted to the ESL, for example, periodically at predetermined times.
Each ESL operating in a system typically has affixed a printed overlay, providing visible information for customers and retailer employees in order to identify the product for which the ESL is providing information. Each ESL must maintain the pricing information for the product indicated on the printed overlay affixed to the ESL, in order to avoid mispricing of a product. This means that an association should be maintained in the ESL database between an identifier of each ESL, such as an ESL serial number, and an identifier of the overlay affixed to the ESL, for example, an overlay identification number. Entering such information in ways which require direct attention to each ESL is typically a tedious process involving relatively high labor costs, because thousands of ESLs may be involved.
In addition to properly storing information for each ESL, conveniently referred to as linking an ESL, it is also important to remove the identifier of an ESL from the database when necessary, or to otherwise indicate that the ESL need not be updated. ESLs are frequently physically removed from an ESL system. When an ESL is removed, it is important to indicate that the ESL no longer needs to be updated, in order to avoid continued attempts to communicate with the ESL. Such continued attempts to communicate with ESLs that are no longer present can overburden a system and slow response if a large number of ESLs have been removed from the system but have not been unlinked.